Lupin Buys Japan Drugmaker for Flat-Cost Hospital Business

Lupin Ltd. (LPC), the pharmaceutical
company founded by Indian billionaire Desh Bandhu Gupta, agreed
to buy a specialty injectable-drug unit of Japan’s I’rom
Holdings Co.

The acquisition of Tokyo-based I’rom Pharmaceutical Co.
will be made through Lupin’s Japanese unit, Kyowa Pharmaceutical
Industry Co., the Indian company said in a statement today.
Ramesh Swaminathan, Lupin’s president of finance and planning,
declined to provide financial details in a telephone interview.

The purchase will allow the Mumbai-based company to sell to
Japan’s so-called diagnosis procedure combination hospitals,
whose sales are expected to “grow significantly” in future,
Lupin said. I’rom Pharmaceutical markets generic drugs to these
facilities, which account for 35 percent of hospital beds in
Japan, according to Lupin’s statement.

“This acquisition gives us a foothold into the DPC market
and the injectibles space, which is a growing area in Japan,”
Swaminathan said. Sales from Japan, which account for about 11
percent of Lupin’s revenue, will probably climb 15 percent in
the year ending March 31, he said, without providing specific
figures.

Japan’s government introduced a flat-payment system at
diagnosis procedure combination hospitals under an initiative to
standardize procedure costs and share health-care information.